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Stocking my preschool shelf :)


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Cuisenaire Rods

Abacus

Pattern Tiles

 

Special art supplies and paper?

 

Games...  Mighty Mind is one my kids enjoyed at that age.  And Bzz Out.  Puzzles?

 

Magnifying glass

 

Letter tiles or fridge magnets?

Handwriting Without Tears wooden letter pieces?

 

A few special books and readers?

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In addition to farrarwilliams great list...

 

How about some "workbooks"?

- sticker books

- paint with water

- dot-to-dot (number and letter)

Kumon -- folding, cutting, pasting, alphabet, mazes

Rod and Staff - age 3-4 -- 4 books, starting with eye/hand coordination, visually comparing, exposure to numbers, color, and last book introducting coloring, cutting and counting

 

Busy Bags -- one activity per ziplock bag, use several per week, and rotate the bags each week:

- using big plastic tweezers to pick up and transfer pom-poms or other items from one container to another

- lacing cards

- working with play doh or homemade salt dough

- using pinch clothespins in various ways

- fine motor skill bag o' items (see these ideas)

- "fishing" (cardboard with a paperclip on them; fishing pole as a dowel with a magnet attached at end of string)

- stringing patterns of beads on a lace

- bingo dot stampers and paper or a coloring book

- Lauri puzzles and stacking toys

- pattern blocks and print off very simple designs for replicating (like these)

- bag of recyclables (toilet paper and for stacking, building, taping together, cutting with scissors, creating with...

- Wikki Stix or pipecleaners / "chenille" -- for bending, twisting together, stringing beads, creating...

- make a small flannel board (wrap/tape a piece of flannel around an old spiral notebook cardboard back), and cut out shapes (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, diamonds) of different shapes -- use index cards to make patterns for replication, or let your preschooler experiment

- playdough and gadgets or kitchen utensils

- bag of sensory fidgets

- construction toys, building blocks, connecting toys

- geoboard and rubberbands

- math manipulative, like counting bears

- child's tape recorder and a few cassettes of songs or books on tape

 

Activity "Table" (use an long/wide but shallow under-the-bed plastic storage tub, put on tile floor for easy clean up)

- cups, spoons, bowls, small pitcher, etc. for pouring, filling, measuring (can use water, rice, beans…)

- bubbles

- shaving cream -- and some matchbox cars and plastic toys

 

Outside Activities

- paint with water = small paint can and wide brush to "paint" the house, wall, shed, etc.

- sidewalk chalk

- magnifying glass

- bug catcher net and viewing box

- sandbox and toys (sometimes add big plastic "gems" from craft store to be buried treasure to find!) (wet down the sand and build roads and tunnels for matchbox cars)

 

Resources (most are free):

Starfall

Letter of the Week

Homeschool Creations

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Homeschool Share

3 Dinosaurs

Pre-Kinders

Living Life Intentionally

Two Teaching Mommies

Seasons of Joy (for a fee)

 

 

Be sure to only have a handful of things available at a time, and then rotate what's on the shelf each week to keep it all "fresh", and then you are able to repeat it every few weeks. ;)

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Here are links to my pinterest preschool pages. Some are for classroom, but easily replicable at home.

I am recently into Reggio Emilia and natural materials. I stocked up at the dollar store--mirrors, river stones, glass flat marbles, erasers, pool noodles (cut into sections--make a basket or bag of various lengths and have child line them up, or cut into 2-4 inch pieces for patterning and use as blocks), posterboard and dog bones (trace various sizes of dog biscuits and match the outlines when you are discussing pets --if that floats your boat! You can donate to the shelter after if you don't have a dog or neighbor with a dog).

I stay away from plastic containers when possible, and have a collection of wood trays and such I use for sorting.

 

Preschool

Natural materials in preschool

Preschool science

 

This is included above, but just to illustrate the ideas of using interesting natural materials, I post it here. A child with these options might practice counting, one-to-one correspondance, and fine motor skills, all while having a delightful sensory experience.

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  • 10 months later...

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